A friend of mine, Skeet, who stays in Hawaii, recently posted a picture of a sea turtle which she referred to as a green turtle (Chelonia mydas) though I swear it looked like a hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) :) So I did what I thought was right — I left her a comment, and said that I thought it was a hawksbill turtle because it looked like one to me!

Almost immediately, she posted another post with two more pictures of the same turtle, and one of them confirmed that it was indeed a green turtle *blushes*

So how do we differentiate a green from a hawksbill turtle?

Visually, an adult green turtle is bigger than an adult hawksbill turtle, but we are often not sure whether the turtle we’ve just encountered was an adult or a juvenile, especially if we’re not experienced enough. The average length of an adult green turtle is about 1.5m, whereas an adult hawksbill turtle is about 1m in length. Moreover, it makes a difference if you saw the turtle while you were underwater or out of water because everything looks BIGGER and CLOSER if you’re underwater :)

Also, the hawksbill turtle’s beak (read: mouth) looks like a hawk’s bill, which is why it is so named. The hawk-like beak enables the hawksbill turtle to bite off sponges. On the other hand, the green turtle feeds on seagrasses :)

Click for a complete turtle identification guide, downloaded from the Division of Fish and Wildlife Department of Planning and Natural Resources, Government of the Virgin Islands.

So the best way to differentiate a green turtle from a hawksbill turtle is to count the number of prefrontal scales on the turtle’s head. Referring to the diagram above, the green turtle has a pair of prefrontal scales, whereas the hawksbill turtle has two pairs.

Fairly easy, isn’t it? :D

Edited:

Well, my new best friend said that he couldn’t tell the scales apart, so I stole skeet’s picture and hopefully this gives him a better picture of what prefrontal scales look like :D

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